This invention relates generally to harvesting machines, such as mowers, of the type having guide panels to influence the trajectory of the crop material being discharged from the mower, and, more particularly, to a system for automatically repositioning the crop guide panels to ideally place a crop windrow for engagement by a trailing implement even as the harvesting machine traverses a non-straight path.
Single pass harvesting operations often involve mounting a mower on the front hitch of a tractor and towing a baler or other implement behind the tractor where it engages the cut crop windrow deposited on the ground by the mower. While feeding of mowed crop to the towed implement is normally centered during straight, flat operation, the system cannot effectively direct the cut crop windrow to the towed implement during turns or on side hills. The forward mounted and towed implements track on different turning radii as the vehicle is turned and the cut crop windrows tend to drift downhill during side hill operation. Misalignment of the windrow and the towed implement pickup assembly causes cut crop to be left in the field and/or uneven feeding resulting in pickup assembly plugging, poor feed performance, or misshapen bales.
Crop flow discharged from the mower is directed using a combination of shields, guides, and deflectors positioned to act upon the crop material as it is discharged from the mower or a conditioner mechanism and direct the crop material to a desired arrangement on the ground. Current machines include windrow shields that can be adjusted, either manually or by manually actuated mechanical apparatus, to various windrow widths or set to laterally direct the windrow to one side of the machine or the other. Shield adjustment is typically accomplished using tie-rods secured to the mower rear frame or the rear bodywork which allows the shields to be positioned to produce a desired windrow configuration. Such arrangements to not typically allow for on-the-fly adjustment of the shields in response to changing tractor-implement alignments.
It would be desirable to provide a crop shield positioning apparatus that is adapted to use non-manual means to reposition the crop shields to alter lateral placement of the resulting windrow in response to then-present field conditions. The benefits are magnified by a crop shield positioning apparatus that includes automatic shield adjustment to adjust crop shield position on-the-fly so that a windrow from a forward-mounted mower will be ideally positioned for pickup by a towed implement, even as the tractor-implement combination turns from a straight-line path. Further benefits would be realized by crop shield positioning apparatus that allows the vehicle operator to manually adjust crop shield position to suit field conditions encountered. Still further benefits would be realized by a crop shield positioning apparatus that is easily incorporated into current production mower-conditioners without significant alteration of the machine design.